On the occasion of the joint declaration of the trade unions from 30.03.2021 regarding the cumulative calculation of working hours, the Association of Bulgarian Employers' Organizations (Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Confederation of Industrialists and Employers in Bulgaria) maintains the position that the legal framework of the cumulative calculation of working time, which has been in force in our country since January 1 this year, is in full compliance with international acts - Convention No. 1 on Working Time (Industry) of 1919 of the ILO and Directive 2003/88/EC on certain aspects of the organization of working time of 4 November 2003.
With the amendment in Art. 142 of the Criminal Code, the Republic of Bulgaria takes advantage of the opportunity expressly provided for by Directive 2003/88/EC, Art. 19 "Restrictions on derogations from reference periods", where it is clearly stated that "...Member States have the possibility, subject to the general principles of protecting the safety and health of workers, for objective or technical reasons or for reasons related to the organization of work, to allow through collective labor agreements or agreements concluded between the social partners, to set reference periods which in no case exceed 12 months'. The settlement of such an opportunity was also recommended by the Economic and Social Council of the Republic of Bulgaria in an opinion on the subject: "Problems in the application of the system for the summary calculation of working hours", adopted at a plenary session held on 10 May 2019.
For a long time, the trade union organizations insisted that the reference period for which the cumulative calculation of working time is established should last up to 4 months (not six, as was the case until the end of last year), and the employers' organizations - to arrange the possibility, upon reaching the KTD, to a period for the cumulative calculation of working hours of up to 12 months was introduced. With the changes in the CT (SG, No. 107 of 2020), both requests were satisfied, as corresponding to European norms and balancing the interests of the parties. Now, however, the unions are insisting that only the 4-month reference period be kept, but not the possibility of reaching an agreement for a longer period through collective bargaining at the sectoral and branch level.
We, the employers' organizations, welcomed the unification of the CT norms with the opportunity provided by the cited art. 19 of Directive 2003/88/EC, namely - with a collective labor agreement under Art. 51b to be able to set a period for the cumulative calculation of working hours up to 12 months. This possibility is in accordance with Community law and reflects the free will of representative organizations of workers and employers to negotiate a collective labor agreement at the sectoral and branch level.
A different interpretation means half-heartedness and neglect of the interests of the parties in the bilateral dialogue, who would negotiate such clauses, assuming that they are of mutual interest. It also means a lack of flexibility in working hours, which is especially necessary in today's conditions of increasingly difficult survival for many enterprises, and above all for the people working in them.
As representative organizations of employers in Bulgaria and social partners, we also express our concern over the fact that the trade union side is precisely opposed to the possibility of a problem being regulated through collective bargaining. In itself, this is against the very essence of social dialogue and calls into question the meaning of the existence of the organizations of the social partners. After all, it is precisely collective bargaining that is one of the main and most important functions of the organizations of the social partners, and its rejection is contrary to the fundamental logic of industrial relations.
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